Make Congress Obey Rights Rules

March 18, 1986

EVERYONE IS aware that, when Congressmen speak of budget cuts and belt tightening, they are thinking about belts other than their own. When it comes to working conditions for our lawmakers, no junket is too costly, no perk too frivolous.

Not everyone is aware that this affinity for high-toned rhetoric and low- level performance extends to civil rights matters.

While loudly committing itself to equality, Congress has, charges Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, ``specifically exempted itself from most of the civil rights laws enacted in this nation.``

The Senate does have a rule against job discrimination. It is, Glenn says, meaningless because there is no provision for enforcing it. If a senator wants to discriminate on his staff against blacks, Jews, Hispanics, women or any other minority, there is nothing to prevent it.

To correct this, Glenn has introduced a resolution that would create a Senate Fair Employment Relations Office that could set guidelines and effectively act against violators.

Whether discrimination in congressional hiring is widespread or rare is irrelevant; if even one member is guilty of job discrimination, then lip service for civil rights is, as Glenn says, ``the rankest kind of hypocrisy.``

There should be no room for argument about the obligation of those who pass our laws to obey the laws they pass. But Glenn has attempted in the past to get a similar proposal through the Senate and failed.

He is trying again, a press aide said, ``because the climate`` for such action seems improved.

What kind of climate is necessary? The order to end segregation came down from the Supreme Court 32 years ago. Major civil rights legislation has been on the books for more than 20 years.

Convincing congressmen that they should include themselves in austerity programs may be too much to ask. There should be no question, however, about forcing them to conform to civil rights rules that apply to everybody else.